Shakhtar agrees with Chelsea for UCL home game... ‘Wandering’ for 13 years after the Donbas civil war

(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Gye-yeon Kim = The Ukrainian professional soccer team, which cannot play properly in its home country due to the war, will play its home games at Chelsea Stadium in the English Premier League (EPL), which was once owned by a Russian conglomerate.

According to British media outlets such as Sky Sports on the 21st (local time), Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) Shakhtar Donetsk agreed with Chelsea to use Stamford Bridge in London, England as its home stadium for UEFA Champions League (UCL) games in the 2026-2027 season.

Shakhtar Donetsk said, "We believe that Shakhtar's match in London will leave an unforgettable impression on Ukrainian and English fans." About 45,000 Ukrainian refugees live in London after the outbreak of war with Russia in February 2022.

Chelsea finished 10th in the league last season and failed to advance to European club competitions, so their match schedules are not expected to overlap. Chelsea revealed that a disappointing last season helped them lose the pitch to Shakhtar.

Shakhtar originally has the Donbas Arena in Donetsk as its home stadium, but it has not been able to play games there since long before the all-out war between Ukraine and Russia. As pro-Russian separatist rebels and Ukrainian government forces clash over the Donbass region (Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts), the last UPL match was held in May 2014, and the team has been playing in other people's stadiums.

Accordingly, domestic home games were mainly played in the capital Chiiu and in Lviv in the west, which is relatively far from the front line. International matches were held in rented stadiums in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and Krakow, Poland. Despite adverse conditions, the team won the UPL trophy last season and advanced to the UCL, and are looking for a venue for this year's international games as well.

Chelsea is a club owned by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich for 19 years since 2003. Abramovich sold the club in 2022 when Western sanctions were imposed due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The British government is pressuring the club's sale proceeds to be frozen and used for war victims in Ukraine.